The Art of Researching

Researching topics can be a pain in the...well you get the idea. But what I have learned is that researching for your college paper and researching for something you yourself are working on can provide to very different outcomes and responses. During my school semester I had to research the text for the answer my teacher was looking for or at least one that was suitable to answer the questions asked in numerous short essays. After a while it becomes a formulated approach really where you find excellent supporting text applying it to the question and follow up with your own approving statements. Researching like this is no fun. Then there is all the tedious and meticulous documentation that you have to provide when it comes to research papers. To top it all off you have to confirm it is coming from a credible source that has received the stamp of approval via a school of academia. Did I make anyone cringe yet? In turn I find research isn’t always bad for example when it comes to research for my writing.

 

In the Fall of 2011 I attended a class called Theory & Practice of Creative Writing. This class had a segment dedicated to non-fiction writing and we had a guess speaker come into discuss this with us. I apologize but I can’t recall the professor’s name that attended that segment (it is lost somewhere in my pile of notes) but I do remember what she told discussed with the class. Basically her application was that researching for her writing was essential. You can’t talk about a character having a gun and give incorrect information about that gun and expect it to be believable. In fact she ended up researching information about this particular gun she was writing about and found she had it completely wrong. That is something that can destroy me as a credible writer and I want to be credible. So making up information about math and in a book about a mathematician will not come across well when all the geniuses of the mathematical world prove without a doubt that I am making myself look like an ass. Here is where research comes in?

 

“Why research for your writing, why not just write about what you know?”

 

A friend asked me this question once. I have already partially answered this but let us delve further into my response(I love to explain). When I spoke with my friend that day I realized I enjoyed the idea of researching for my writing, as far as gathering the facts and placing them in my story. Write what I know, write what I know? Again I would be placing myself in a box limiting my writing to only things I have experienced. However, like my mind I want to expand my writing I want to go beyond what I know. At the same time when I explore these different arenas I want to approach them with the intelligence needed. In other words I don't want to be the one writing the mathematician story and one of my facts is 2+2= 7. That would reflect poorly on me. I have considered researching a bit of physics for one books, samurais for another, mermaids for a third. Even subjects I know a little bit of I want to know more so that I know that I am creating a story that seems authentic to the reader. At other times I may not be going for authentic, maybe just genuine even in these cases I want to be sure that I am not exaggerating ridiculously in certain areas, at least for now.

I feel research can be vital. Finding facts even and making them tall tales, in a way you are making the story your own. If I am to exaggerate however I want to exaggerate on a sound foundation and not necessarily pull things from thin air.

 

**Side Note: This is in no regards anything to do with the current post however in my earlier eagerness to start this site I had intended to write every day. As time has passed I found I was a little over anxious. Instead my attempts will be two serious blogs a week. Hope you are enjoying so far.